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<H2>GemFire Distribution</H2>

Distributed GemFire moves information between physical machines in a
number of different ways.  The JCache implementation uses {@link
org.apache.geode.distributed.internal.DistributionMessage}s
to send information back and forth between VMs.  The distributed
collections use the remote method invocation built on top of a {@link
org.apache.geode.tcp.TCPConuit} to access elements in remote
collections.  GemFire distirbution uses underlying technologies such
as JavaGroups, and sockets to implement data transfer.

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The vast majority of these APIs are internal.  However, the user is
exposed to concepts such as the "distribution manager" and the fact
that multicast networking or "locators" are used to discover the other
members of the distributed group.  The user-level configuration is
grouped together in the {@link
org.apache.geode.distributed.DistributedSystem} class which
provides a "connection" or entry point to the distributed system.

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